Residents forced from their homes in Washington, D.C., because of unsafe living conditions say they're finally getting justice through a $1.6 million settlement.
For 17 years, Ericka Malloy lived in Foster House on Rhode Island Avenue NW, in the Shaw neighborhood. Unfortunately, many of those memories are not so sweet.
“We all had anxiety. My anxiety was very high,” Malloy said. “Rats coming through my cabinets.”
Malloy said she was eventually hospitalized for a polyp in her lung because of mold and she almost died.
“Had I had a place to go and was able to move, I would have very well did that. Who lives in these conditions?” she asked.
Former neighbor Kimberly Trim showed News4 what many tenants dealt with for years, including unchecked leaks that caused black mold.
She grew up in the building and she said the conditions were so bad that many of her neighbors in the affordable housing units were forced to leave.
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“This wasn’t just moving people -- you’re destroying people’s lives. They were destroying people’s lives,” she said. “It’s very disheartening.”
The former Foster House tenants got some good news on Wednesday. Pretty soon, they’ll be getting a check after the Office of the Attorney General for D.C. (OAG) settled with the apartment building’s owners.
Building owners New Bethel and Evergreen will pay $1.6 million as part of the deal, with $650,000 going to tenants.
The OAG said the owners also agreed to sell the building within a year, and the new buyer will have to include at least 76 affordable housing units in the plans to redevelop. If they don’t, they’ll have to pay more than $6 million.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is calling the settlement a win for tenants who were forced from their homes because of substandard living conditions.
“The tenants at Foster House were living in deplorable conditions,” he said. “And this is a case that’s been going on since 2020.”
Schwalb said D.C. is an expensive place to live, affordable housing is difficult to find and officials will hold landlords accountable.
Malloy said she’s happy in her new home but she feels bad for elderly neighbors who weren’t able to see the settlement.
If you feel like you’re living in unsafe conditions or your landlord isn’t doing what they’re supposed to, the OAG says you should report it to their office.
